The world has experienced a movement toward more environmentally friendly product packaging, which has gained momentum recently as the world begins to appreciate the ever-growing presence of non-biodegradable waste in the landfills and areas of waste disposal. Companies have tried to explore new options for controlling the amount of waste and costs associated with containers of products purchased every day. Packaging of products, including foods, beverages, personal care products, and the like are a prime candidate for further action to protect the environment.
Personal care products, such as lotions, creams, hair care products, cosmetics, and the like have been slow to move toward a more environmentally friendly packaging. This may be because the industry is, to a large extent, packaging driven, with the commercial success of many products a direct result of the public's affection for the packaging that accompanies the product rather than the quality of the product itself. Companies that sell colognes, perfumes, eye make up, cosmetic creams, etc. may spend much more capital on the response of potential customers to their packaging than their products. As a result, cosmetics and personal care products companies have resisted the movement to more environmentally friendly packaging, leading to significant waste and a higher cost to both the manufacturer and the customer for repeated purchasing of the same packaging. The present invention is directed to methods for increasing awareness and providing such companies with an easy to introduce marketing technique and system to convert consumers to a refillable container system for personal care products.
The present invention relates generally but not exclusively to the field of materials management, and more particularly to methods designed to market refilling product containers such as (but not limited to) personal care items such as cosmetics, creams, lotions, shampoos, gels, skin care products, hair care products, and the like, which are traditionally packaged and marketed in single use disposable containers.
A hand-held refillable material transfer system may be configured to move highly viscous materials from a point of manufacture to a point of use. The material transfer system may be configured to dispense only the required amount of material without waste, which is especially important when fluids or materials are not easily handled and cannot be transmitted easily or safely from container to container without unwanted exposure. Preferably, such a material transfer system would reduce or eliminate costs and expenses attendant to using traditional disposable personal packaging as well as the waste of material associated with most existing systems. Because certain materials are sensitive to contamination of one form or another, such a material transfer system may be sealed or closed system to protect product quality and allow sampling without exposing the container to contamination. This provides an allocation of product quality to either the supplier or the user. A refillable material transfer system may further be configured to use low cost components, non-pulsating solution for dispensing and transferring thick fluids and other such materials.